BURLINGTON, Vt. (AP) — A 35-year-old man was shot and gravely wounded Thursday in an Occupy Wall Street encampment in Vermont's largest city, police said.
The public was not believed to be at risk after the afternoon shooting at City Hall Park in Burlington, but the circumstances are still being investigated, said Burlington Police Deputy Chief Andi Higbee.
The victim has been identified, but his name will not be released until his family has been notified, Higbee said.
"He was my buddy," Joe Edwards, of Burlington, said of the victim, who had been at the encampment for about a week. Edwards, sitting on a bench in the park about two hours after the shooting, said he did not know the victim's full name.
The encampment has been in the park since Oct. 28. The city had threatened to evict the protesters because the park is closed from midnight until 6 a.m., but city officials made special accommodation for the protesters.
Almost two dozen tents have remained in the park, and the number of protesters has varied.
The first Occupy encampment sprang up in New York in September, and the movement has since spread to cities around the country and world. Protesters object to corporate influence on politics and what they call an unequal distribution of wealth.
Burlington is a community of just under 40,000 people on the shores of Lake Champlain known for its left-leaning politics.
Information from: The Burlington Free Press, http://www.burlingtonfreepress.com
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